


His Valiant Steed

by BritHistorian



Category: Firefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 17:11:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9133459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritHistorian/pseuds/BritHistorian
Summary: This was the first Firefly fanfic I ever wrote.  The first fic I ever wrote at all, for that matter.





	

The sound of hooves made Mal look up from the cargo that he and Simon were shifting. Standing on Serenity's ramp was a Clydesdale stallion, quite possibly the biggest horse Mal had ever seen, with Jayne sitting in the saddle.  
  
“Jayne, what in the ruttin’ ‘verse is that?”  
  
“It’s a horse, cap’n” Jayne replied as he swung out of the saddle. “I won him in a poker game.”  
  
“Won him in a ... don’t tell me you fell for that old scam!”  
  
“What scam?” Simon asked, growing steadily more interested in the situation.  
  
“It’s an old scam-“  
  
“Didn’t get scammed,” Jayne interrupted. “Won him fair an’ square.”  
  
“-that locals pull on spacers. They’ll get a game of cards going, and then once they figure the mark’s had enough to drink-”  
  
“Haven’t been drinking much.” Jayne said, but the way he swayed as he tried to unsaddle the horse said otherwise.  
  
“-then all of a sudden they ‘don’t have enough coin’ to cover the bet, but they’re ‘willing to risk their horse’ and everyone swears that ‘of course’ the horse is worth enough to cover the bet. Because even if the mark does win the horse, they know he’ll have to sell it because his **captain won’t let him bring it on the ship** ” – if the extra emphasis Mal put on this last phrase penetrated Jayne’s drunken brain, he didn’t let it stop him from leading the horse into the hold – “but when he goes to sell it, all of a sudden the horse that everyone _swore_ was worth 20 platinum isn’t worth more than three or four.”  
  
Having finished tangling the horse’s harness around a railing, Jayne staggered up and threw his arm around Mal. “But you’re not going to make me sell the horse, are you Cap’n? You know how often we need horses. We should probably get a couple more, turn part of the hold into a stable.”  
  
“A what?” Mal managed to shift Jayne off of his shoulder and onto a crate. “You really think I’m letting that beast come with us?”  
  
“The horse is the most noble of the creatures man has domesticated.” No one had noticed River come down the stairs to stand stroking the horse’s side.  
  
Mal threw his hands in the air. “Great! Now I’ve got a moonbrain-“ Simon’s glare stopped him cold for a moment “-and ... and River tellin’ me we should have a horse onboard the ship.”  
  
“Might not be a bad idea, Cap’n,” Zoe called down from the upper walkway. “Think how much money we’ve lost takin’ out rental horses and then not bein’ able to return ‘em to get our deposit back.”  
  
Whatever Mal was planning to say was forever lost when Kaylee poked her head out of the engine room to see what all the noise was. “A horse!” she squealed. She then rushed down the stairs, fixed the mess Jayne had made of the reins, produced a brush from one of her toolboxes (was there _anything_ she didn’t have in there?), and started brushing the giant horse.  
  
Figuring the horse would do more to improve the crew’s morale than a fight would, Mal decided to give in. By the time they next made planetfall they’d probably be so sick of the beast they’d be desperate to sell him. “Fine. The horse can stay. But let’s get a couple of things straight. First, captains don’t clean up after horses – that’s the crew’s job. Second, you’ll need to go into town and get a supply of feed – don’t know if any of you geniuses have noticed, but we don’t have too much grass growin’ here in the hold. Now I still want to lift off on schedule, and the horse’s rightful owner has passed himself out in a drunken stupor, so the rest of you had better jump to it. I’ll be in my bunk.”  
  
And as he climbed the stairs, Mal realized he couldn’t remember ever seeing the crew obeying an order, any order, so quickly and so happily.  
  


* * *

  
Once they were off-planet and had their next course laid in, River went down to the hold to check on the horse and Jayne. The horse was sound asleep under the blanket Kaylee had found for him, and Jayne was just waking up.  
  
“My gorram head feels like it’s about to burst,” Jayne announced to the world in general as he hauled himself up off the crate.  
  
“You shouldn’t drink so much,” River said, matter of factly.  
  
“And you shouldn’t be so crazy,” Jayne replied. “And what’s that smell?”  
  
“That’s your horse,” River said with a smile, pointing to the animal with a flourish.  
  
“Now I _know_ you’re a moonbrain. I ain’t got no gorram horse.”  
  
“Yes you do. You won him in a poker game. I named him Hercules.”  
  
“You named him what?” Jayne squinted in the horse’s general direction. “And what’d you name the other one?”  
  
River spun around, laughing. “There is only one Hercules. You are still drunk.”  
  
“That local whiskey must’ve been stronger than it tasted, I don’t remember owning a horse. And Mal let me bring it on the ship?”  
  
River stopped spinning and stretched. “Yes. Captain Mal fought at first, but then he saw that the horse was good for the crew and changed his mind. Anyway, I am particularly glad you won the horse.”  
  
Jayne was now even more confused than he usually got when talking with River. “Why’re you so glad?”  
  
“Because,” River said, pausing halfway up the stairs, “when we start a homestead, we’ll need a strong horse like that one.”  
  
“When we start a ...” Jayne’s voice just trailed off, lost in a cloud of puzzlement.  
  
“After the wedding, silly!” River laughed and ran off toward the cockpit.  
  
“After the wedding? As if. Either she’s crazier than I thought, or I’m drunker than I thought.” Jayne headed for the kitchen, thinking a cup of coffee and then a proper sleep, in his bunk, would do his mind a world of good.  
  


* * *

  
“Is that a carrot in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”  
  
Mal spun around as he heard Inara step up behind him. “Well it’s – that is, I _am_ happy to – it’s for the horse,” Mal said, holding up a bundle of carrots.  
  
“Oh good, Hercules will love those,” Inara said, laughing musically.  
  
“Hercules? The beast has a name?”  
  
“River named him. I’m glad you let the crew keep him – they look happier than I’ve seen them in months.”  
  
“They do at that, don’t they. _River_ named the horse?”  
  
“Yes.” Inara laughed again. “She said she and Jayne will need a horse like that on their homestead.”  
  
Mal almost collapsed with laughter. “So she’s up to making jokes now?”  
  
Inara’s face froze. “I don’t think she was joking, Mal.”  
  
Mal stopped short. “No? Well, I’ll have to have a talk with her then. Talk some sense into her. No, on second thought, let her have her dream – though why she’d want _that_ dream is beyond me – it’ll never happen.”  
  
“You don’t think?”  
  
Mal snorted disdainfully. “Naw! She’d have to convince Jayne to marry her, _and_ she’d have to convince Simon not to stop them. It’ll never happen, not in this ‘verse. Well, I’m going to go give ‘Hercules’ his treat, then I’m going back to bed.”  
  
Inara wondered, as she watched Mal go down the stairs, how such a smart man could be so stupid sometimes.

**Author's Note:**

> This was the first Firefly fanfic I ever wrote. The first fic I ever wrote at all, for that matter.


End file.
